Lancome Color Design Palette in Ruby Affair was one of the limited edition shades in Lancome’s Holiday 2012 Collection. However, it looks like it’s being re-promoted , as I received this as part of my GWP last week . Having missed the train in 2012, I was pretty excited to get a chance to play with it now!

Packaging

The one I got is basically a smaller version of the usual colour design palettes, and this sample doesn’t come with the usual sponge applicators ( which I hate anyway, so I was actually pretty happy about that!)

Price

55$ CAN ( this one was free, because it was a GWP)

Pigmentation

When I swatched the colors they were very smooth and pigmented. On the eyes they perform a bit different – some of the shades are just aren’t as pigmented when you use a brush(which is expected) and serve better as a layering colour, but they’re not bad. The camera picks the colours up to be very purple, but it depends on what kind of light you’re in. It looks taupe from some angles, and kind of purple from some others.

Texture

The shades are smooth to apply, but there is a ton of fallout from shades 2 and 4. 2 especially, is just fallout city! 3 is amazingly pigmented and has a buttery smooth texture – probably my favourite of the bunch. A word about these shadows – they are very easy to overblend! I think its because they’re so soft, but I did find that the look that I did using mainly #3, looked over blended pretty fast.

Staying power

These stay on amazingly well – there was absolutely no fading or creasing even 8 hours later, so A+ on that.

The look

I tried 2 different looks on my eyes ,first using the colours as the guide on the back of the palette prescribes and the 2nd using # 3 as the main colour. Using the colours the way the palette suggests makes the look much more multi-dimensional, which is nice, but I liked it both ways.

You can literally see the fallout under my right eye ( your left) , and that’s mainly the glitter which is like an over spray on coats 2 and 4. So, technically the fallout should reduce the next few times I use this.

In natural light from various angles (using just #3 as the main colour):

(click to enlarge)

Rating

Verdict

As you know, I got this one for free . However I don’t know that I would have been quite as excited if I had shelled out 55$ for this – mainly because of the fallout( which *should* reduce with use), but also because they’re too easy to over blend. I used a VERY light hand when blending and it was still hard for me to get a nice gradient going with this. It’s incredibly easy to use , especially because of the little guide that comes with it at the back – so it’s good for beginners, but I will update the verdict as I use it some more. If it continues to fallout, it’s going to be a !